Rudolf Kaegi

RUDOLF KAEGI – In memoriam Rudolf Kaegi, Swiss citizen and U.S. permanent resident, died on September 26, 2017, at home in New York City. He died of a heart condition when he was 64 years old.

He was born in Zurich, Switzerland to the late Fredy and Trudy Kagi on January 1, 1953. He is survived by his devoted wife, Amy Heebner of New York City, and two nephews and a great niece in Switzerland. He also has a Swiss godson. Ruedi, as he preferred to be called, had a long career as P.C.B. (Printed Circuit Board) Designer and C.A.D. (Computer-Aided Design) technician in private industry.

For more than forty years he worked for companies in Switzerland and the U.S. In 1973 he completed a professional apprenticeship with Knupfer/Schurtenlieb Architects in Zurich, Switzerland. He was employed at Grossenbacher Control in Effretikon, Switzerland, a suburb of Zurich, where he worked for twenty years. Then he went to work for Mauell AG in Buchs, Switzerland. Amy, his American-Swiss wife, lived with him in Switzerland for 4 years. In summer 1994 Ruedi followed his wife to the U.S., where she had secured a faculty appointment at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota. While in Minnesota, Ruedi accepted a Teaching Assistant position in Special Education at Apollo High School. He was popular with the disadvantaged students he worked with, and with fellow teachers. He and his wife lived in the U.S. for the rest of his life, with occasional visits to Switzerland. In 1996 Ruedi resumed working in private industry as P.C.B. Designer at C.N.T., a company near Minneapolis. He worked there until November,1998, when he and his wife moved to New York City.

In New York he was Consultant for Zinnia Research & Design, his wife’s company. In 2000 he resumed working as C.A.D. technician for companies in New Jersey including Tri-Tec Design. For over 8 years he worked at Andrew Corporation/Commscope in Warren, New Jersey. After Andrew Corporation, Ruedi accepted a position as P.C.B. Designer at Honeywell on Long Island (Melville, New York). Ruedi spoke several languages. He was fluent in his native Swiss German, High German and English, and had basic knowledge of Italian, French, Spanish and Indonesian. He travelled widely including extended journeys to Indonesia and New Zealand, before he met his wife. Together they travelled in Switzerland, Europe and the U.S. Ruedi was an enthusiastic connoisseur of European music and all kinds of cinema.

His favorite musicians were Django Reinhart and Hansche Weiss. Ruedi often went out to see movies, and collected a library of films on DVDs He and his wife were members of the Swiss Society of New York and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They attended Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in Manhattan.

Ruedi is remembered lovingly by his wife, family and friends.

He was buried at Seneca Union Cemetery in Valois, in the Finger Lakes region of New York. A funeral service was held at Royce-Chedzoy Funeral Home in October of 2017 in Watkins Glen, NY.

A memorial service was held on May 12, 2018, at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. The Rev. Helen Jackson officiated at the memorial service.